Indian Railways

Tatkaal service is a scheme offered by the Indian railways which serves to be very useful to avail reservations in case of any emergencies. This facility provides the customer the privilege of just booking the tickets just 2- days in advance, excluding the date on which the travel wants to travel. E.g. if the date of the journey is 6^th November, then the tatkaal ticket can be booked on 4^th of November from 8: oo am for the travel journey.

In case of cancellation within 24 hrs before the departure of the train, 25% of the total fare excluding the Tatkaal fare is refunded. Full refund of payment in tickets booked is a rare phenomenon in cases where in the train gets delayed for more than 3 hours at the originating point of journey.

Full refund is also possible if the traveler himself plans not to travel, or if the train route gets diverted due to some unavoidable circumstances and also if in case the boarding or the destination stations of the traveler is not in the diverted route.

The time frame for the refund of the amount of the travel is the same as that of other normal ticket bookings. Tatkaal charges are the same throughout the year and the optimum use of the tatkaal service is made in the months of April to September, which happens to be a holiday season for mostly all schools and colleges.

Tatkaal service is favored by many passengers because of instant and immediate service that gets provided to them, even though it involves paying a certain premium amount to get the service.

Indian Railway services and schemes are constantly on the move with innovative ideas and quality services for its passengers. Tatkaal booking is surely one. Let’s wait and see what more and user friendly service does it provide further on.

The government and the railway officials are working in tangent to make commuting in train by passengers as a completely hygienic and healthy experience. Currently there are no rules laid against the offence of spitting by the Indian railway Act.

The metro and Mono rail which are in the process of starting early next year want to be saved from the ordeal of purple red stains. The government and the railway official’s are taking utmost care to address the act of spitting by commuters of Indian railways.

It has been stressed by Mumbai Vikas Rail Corporation and other concerned railway authorities to take stringent actions against the offender found guilty of spitting in the railway train compartments or stations premises.

The Railways officials are taking utmost care to maintain the rail coaches and have put forward the idea of changing the colour scheme for the coaches changed from purple to red so that the visible patches of red stains get hidden under the red coloured coaches. The above idea has however been already been dropped by the concerned officials as already a huge some is being spent on the Indian railways colour scheme. Moreover the new purple coloured scheme has been widely accepted and appreciated by the commuters.

Since there is no law against the offence of spitting, the Indian railways is booking offenders under the Indian Railway Act for damaging Railway property and for causing inconvenience to the general public.

Its high time, commuters realize the ill-effects of spitting in public places and the unhygienic conditions involved with it. We should learn to respect the privileged quick and cheap mode of transportation that has been made available to us by the Indian railways. Check your act and act responsibly.

If you are planning to travel on Indian Railways you are required to make reservations for all classes of accommodation on long distance trains except if you plan to travel by second class. For this a user friendly online booking service has been launched by Indian Railways to make reservations quick and easy for the travelers.

The online reservation facility has been started so that the passenger does not have to stand in long queues on reservation counters on a few prominent stations. These queues are huge and can take as long as two hours to reserve your tickets. Where as the online reservation system started by Indian railways is user-friendly and has made it possible to book the tickets from anywhere around the world.

For reservations you need to log in to the Indian Railways passenger reservation inquiry website and find the name and the no of the train you want to travel on. Under the option of “Services” you will need to click on the option of “Train berth availability”. An online time-table to view the list of all Indian Railway trains in a glance will appear to assist you.

You will need to enter the details of the station you want to depart from and your place of destination. You will need to mention all details such as your journey date, destination you want to travel to and even your class of Accommodation. You can check all the class for accommodations since some class book more easily than the others.

If there is no availability of the trains between the stations you have selected you will get an error message and then you will need to try some different train names and numbers along with different stations.

If at all there are no reservations available on particular train, the availability will show as under the category of (RAC), which means if at all there are any cancellations the tickets would be made available to you. Waiting list tickets when booked means there is no seat available in the trains and waitlist passengers won’t be allowed to board the train unless there are enough cancellations.

Once you have found train to travel on take a print copy of the same as that is the only witness of you booking the ticket online when on board.

People often tend to go overboard while packing bags for a serene holiday or even while going to visit their family in their native places. It has been a tendency and largely followed by all in Indian culture to carry gifts if visiting your near and dear ones or carry eatables and other items in bulk while holidaying which actually piles on as excess luggage.

Keeping the Indian culture and tendency in mind the Indian railways has set Rules for luggage which can be carried by each passenger on board. The personal requirements of the passengers which will be required by him during the course of journey alone is termed as luggage. Bulky goods, explosives and other dangerous goods too cannot be carried as luggage.

General merchandise and considerable quantities of heavy articles intended for commercial business purposes are accepted as parcels but not as luggage in the train compartments.

Every passenger is allowed only a certain amount of free allowance up to which you can carry with you in the compartments, free of cost. The free allowance is the facility provided by Indian railways according to which you can carry your luggage varies as per the class of the ticket booked for travel.

If in case your luggage marginally exceeds the quantity of the free allowance allowed in the train, you will be charged as per the normal luggage rates which are applicable to your class of travel. Air- conditioned and first class passengers though can enjoy the luxury of carrying ice boxes, attaché cases but not suitcases, small handbags all free of charge.

A person can carry the excess luggage by booking it in the luggage office, paying the excess charges applicable for the same. You should also get your tickets endorsed by cross-checking the luggage ticket details before beginning your journey.

All luggages are important and each passenger is responsible on its own for taking care of its valuables. Take care of your belongings while on board.